Misc

50th Article

With this post I am proud to annouce the 50th article of this blog, which went online on August 10, 2008.  50 articles in 104 days means an average of 0.49 article per day, or 3.4 articles every week.

In these three months the blog built up a reputation among Mark Knopfler fans and guitar players, and the number of daily visitors is still steadily rising.

Thanks to every visitor and to all who expressed how much they like this blog. Also thanks to all who commented here, and this way helped to make the blog really interactive.

I really enjoy writing about what I am interested in myself, so be sure that there will be many more articles in the future.

MK guitar style and licks

Knopfler goes Jazz – Video with licks from Comfort and Joy soundtrack

In 1982 Dire Straits recorded their Love over Gold album in New York. According to Knopfler himself, he spent some time before with learning new chords and licks from a book by Mickey Baker. This circumstance, and the collaboration with Jazz musicians of the New York jazz scene – like Mike Mainierei, Michael & Randy Brecker or Tony Levin – seem to be the reason why sudenly more jazz elements appeared in his playing.

A short time later Knopfler recorded the Local Hero soundtrack, again some of these musicians appeared on tracks like Smooching. In 1984 the soundtrack for Comfort & Joy was released. The licks in the following video are from this 3-track soundtrack – from the track Joy (orginally released on a maxi vinyl single). They illustrate Knopfler’s jazzy approach -typical elements are chromatic notes, e.g. using the b5 note of the scale, or the swing rhythm.

I have not heard the soundtrack for years I must admit, and generally I do not care too much about playing 100% authentically, I rather try to catch the feel and play it the way it sounds good to me, so forgive me if some details are not accurate. Nevertheless the video should give you some insight of what is going on.

Video in high quality: (in case of bandwidth problems, click here to go directly to youtube and watch it at normal quality)

If you don’t know this rather rare soundtrack, you can hear the intro of the song Joy here:

 

Misc

John Illsley’s photo stream on flickr

Today I surfed into some early Dire Straits photos I have never seen before on flickr.com. These belong to – guess who – Dire Straits’ bass player John Illsley. He has his own photo channel there. Check out!

John Illsley’s photo stream

Update: I meanwhile also found a comment from John about these pictures on his great looking site at johnillsely.com:

Dire Staits in 1978
————————————-

Thanks to Henk for sending me photos from 1978 of the Straits in Greenwich, London, standing in the mud after the tide had gone out. You can look at them on our Flickr page.

We were rehearsing at The Wood Wharf Studios for a UK tour at the time, which was a short walk from the flat that me, Mark and David used to share in Deptford. As you can see, food was pretty scarce in those days!

If I remember rightly, some of these pictures ended up in Time Out.

Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Vintage guitars

Sunburst and unburst Les Pauls from the late 50ies

Have you ever wondered why Mark Knopfler’s Gibson Les Pauls (he has a ’58, a ’59, and some replicas of late 50ies models) differ so much in their colour? And what is the colour called, simply sunburst, or is it cherry sunburst, or tobacco sunburst? Have you ever heard the term ‘unburst’?

from left to right: Knopfler's '59 Les Paul Standard, a reissue, the '58

The answer is simple: all those Les Paul Standards from that era (they were only built in this version from ’58 to ’60) were cherry sunburst, a sunburst which goes from red on the outer area to yellow in the center. However, the red paint Gibson used in those days was very sensitive to light exposure (especially UV radiation) and easily faded. This is a general problem of red, but it depends of the kind of laquer to which extend this might happen. Modern laquer is almost stable in this respect, but the laquer on the early Les Pauls has proven to be extremely sensitive, much more than the one of Fenders from that time.
While there are old Les Pauls Standards that look like new – which means a bright red -, there are others which have lost all the red and seem to be completely yellow. These got the nickname ‘unburst’ – Peter Green’s Les Paul from the Fleetwood Mac days (later this guitar belong to Gary Moore who meanwhile sold it) is maybe the most famous example of these.

Peter Green's Les Paul Standard - all red faded, an 'unburst'
Peter Green's Les Paul - all red totally faded, an 'unburst'
Guitar in general, Misc

Shubb capo for vintage Strats

I have been using the great Shubb capo for some years now. I love it because it is not only easy to use, but it also allows you to set the tension on the strings very precisely so that you have hardly any problems with detuning. Of course it is available for curved or flat fingerboards. However, until recently I have not been aware that there is also a special version available for vintage-style Strats or other guitars with a neck radius of 7.25″, the Shubb deluxe S4. And this version is in fact much better on a Strat. The normal version (I guess it is for about 9″ radius) has not enough tension on the outer strings, or you can set it to more tension which results in too much on the inner strings. Unfortunately Shubb capos are not cheap, but they are really worth the money.

Amps, Effects, Mark Knopfler gear

Mark Knopfler’s Amp and Effect Settings on the On Every Street tour

A lot of people wonder how to adjust all the controls on the guitar amp or on effect devices to recreate the sound of song xy. Such questions are common in guitar forums all over the internet. Of course it is almost impossible to say which setting someone needs to recreate an authentic sound with his individual gear. Besides, even if you use exactly the same kind of setup with the same setting as on the original song, this does not guarantee to get the same sound because the probably most important sound factor is the playing technique, the old saying “the sound is in his fingers”.
Nevertheless, to know the original setting of a sound can help you to come as close as possible within your playing ability. In the studio, most engineers take photos of amp settings in case a part of the recording has to be fixed with later overdubs, but these pictures almost never get into the public. On Dire Straits’ On Every Street tour (1991/92) however, Mark Knopfler’s then-guitar technician Ron Eve allowed a few interviewers to copy his chart with most settings for the amps and effects. Such a chart appeared in a Mark Knopfler interview in Germany’s Gitarre & Bass magazine, and another one was from the England tour (unfortunately I must admit I downloaded it some years ago but cannot find it anymore).

Ron Eve changed the settings for the two amps and switched between the effect programs for each song. They used two Soldano amps, one is the active amp for a song so that the other amp can be in advance adjusted for the next song. In fact, only the pre-amps are alternated, the power sections of both amps feed a stereo signal into the two Marshall cabinets.

This chart is not really self-explaining, but with some research most parameters can be identified. Here is the chart:

click to enlarge in new window
click to enlarge in new window

What exactly do all the columns and figures mean?

Title

The title of the song, nothing to add here except that Tunnel of love was not always played. If not, it was replaced by Telegraph Road.

No.

Just the number of the song.

Guitar

This column does not only list the guitar for the song but also the pick-up combinations or control settings. The denotion of the pick-up combinations is a bit inconsistent: while ‘b2’ seems to be ‘second position from bridge’ = bridge & middle, and ‘n2’ for ‘second position from neck’ = neck & middle, on Planet of New Orleans it says ‘b4’ which might be be ‘fourth position from bridge’ = neck & middle (why not ‘n2’ here ?). On Walk of Life it says ‘cent.’ which is center position (bridge & neck), and on On Every Street ‘n c’ should be ‘neck & center’ (the Schecter Strat has three individual switches, so something like ‘n2’ makes less sense here).

In addition to the pick-up combination we find notes like ‘on’, ‘out’, ‘off’, or ‘in’. On the Pensa these should have to do with the active mid boost (avtivated with a push/pull poti, I guess ‘out’ is on, ‘in’ is off). I am not sure what ‘on’ and ‘in’ might stand for, it seems only the tone control is left as a candidate (?). Please make your suggestions using the comment function.

Gain

This might be the gain setting of the pre-amp in the Cornish rack system that was the container for Knopfler’s 19″ rack effects.

TC prog

The TC was the 2290 delay, these numbers should be  of the program in which they saved the settings for each song

Del

This should be another delay, presumably the Alesis Quadraverb (or it is the Zoom 9010, see Rev/FX). Here we only find ‘checked’ (on) or not. I suspect this effect had a fixed setting and was just switched on for an additional delay effect.

Rev/FX

Maybe the Zoom 9010, or the Alesis Quadraverb, see Del above.

Reverb

The Yamaha REV 5

Wah

The fixed-psoition wah wah (a Dunlop Cry Baby) was only used for Money for Nothing, it was built into the rack.

Lead

Lead (=overdrive) channel of the Soldano amp, if not checked, the normal channel was used, see below.

(Amp)

The two Soldano SLO 100 amps were denoted with A and B.

Amp Settings (note that the Soldano controls go up to 11)

SW

These arrows correspond to the Bright (upper arrow) and Crunch switches (down should be off, up should be on)

N1 / OI

Gain control of the Normal or Overdrive channel

M / M / T

Bass / middle / treble

MO / OO

Master volume of the Normal or Overdrive channel

P

Presence control

Notes

It seems on Calling Elvis the overdrive channel was switched to the normal channel during an arpeggio (which?) , N5 and N9 can be the setting of maybe normal gain and normal master

XL 115W is the string set for the red Pensa on Two Young Lovers.

Maybe a black-out, but I have no idea which Washburn can be meant.

Some general notes

As said there were one or two more of these charts around from other concerts. What is striking is the high setting of the bass control, mind he uses two closed 4 x 12″ cabinets which have normally plenty of bass.

Amps, Mark Knopfler gear

Mark Knopfler’s JTM 45 Marshall amp of Money for Nothing and Brothers in Arms

In Guy Fletcher’s last recording diary he had a photo of Mark Knopfler’s old Marshall amp with the matching cabinet. This seems to be the same amp that was used on the original recording of both Money for Nothing and Brothers in Arms.

Marshall’s first amps were basically copies of the tweed Fender Bassman. They had the same circuit and consequently the same controls, although they looked completely different. The Fender Bassman was a combo amp with four 10″ speakers, while the Marshall was just a head that was set on a cabinet with four 12″ speakers which Marshall originall intended to be used for bass.

This first model was the JTM 45. JTM is said to stand for Jim + Terry Marshall (I have sources that say Terry was Jim’s wife and another that says it was his son), while 45 stands for 45 watts. This power came from two 5881 tubes (a military version of the 6L6 used in most Fender amps) , which was later replaced with the KT66, and again with the EL34. Generally these first amps went through many minor changes, it seems Marshall bought parts in small supplies, and when the next time a component was not available at the same value, they simply took a similar one. The first amps had a rectangle metall or plastic plate with the Marshall logo, as Knopfler’s amp has the later white plastic Marshall script, it seems to be from not before 1965.

The controls were (from left to right): presence, bass middle, treble, volume bright channel, volume normal channel.

The cabinet might be from the same period.  On stage Knopfler often used Electro Voice 12L speakers in his 4×12″ cabinets, and Guy Fletcher added in his forum that he believes that there are also EVs in this cabinet (he seems not to be 100% sure). On the other hand, it might be possible that Knopfler left the original Celestion 20w speakers in this vintage cabinet, at least this is what I would have done. The EV12L has more treble than the Celestions, however, the Celestion are softer but have a distinctive presence peak. And the EVs weigh a lot more, a roady’s nightmare.

The combination of Marshall amps and 4×12″ cabinets with Celestions is what made the British rock sound famous, a warm and soft distortion with natural compression from the amp.

Note the little patch cable that connects the second input of the right channel with the input of the left channel. This trick allows you to use both channels at the same time which results in a fatter sound.

Guitar in general, Misc

Featured artist – Richard Thompson

Let’s feature another artist today: besides Mark Knopfler, I admire the work of Richard Thompson. Richard played with England’s folk-rock band Faiport Convention in the late 60ies, and started a solo career afterwards. His first records were with his then-wife Linda Thompson who is a great singer.

Thompson has a lot of similiarities with Mark Knopfler: he is a great song writer, he is British, he has strong roots in folk music, he is a Strat hero (playing his vintage ’57 Fender Stratocaster for decades now), he often uses pick-ups 1 + 2 and often plays clean sounds over a Fender Twin Reverb, he is truely different from the mass of other players, …

Some differences: he plays with a pick plus his right-hand middle and ring fingers (like Albert Lee), he sometimes played rather weird stuff, he sells less records, …

If you don’t know him, check him out, there is a lot of stuff on youtube. I personally favour what he did in the middle-to-late 70ies or early 80ies. I put together a survey of his work over the decades, enjoy.

The first clip is for us Dire Straits + clean Strat lovers, don’t miss the guitar solos, and turn it up 🙂 Unfortunately no video, just slide show 🙁 :
– – Video not available on youtube anymore – –

Here is something melodic with Linda Thompson, folk style, a beautiful song:

… and here some more weird stuff – don’t miss the last solo (from 3:38 on) and watch how he uses the tuners for that low e string note. Note that he plays totally different from everyone who uses standard scales. By the way, the drummer is Dave Mattacks, one of my favourites. Mark played with him on a session for Joan Armatrading, on a song called ‘The shouting stage’:

– – Video not available on youtube anymore – –

Here is Richard playing solo acoustic guitar:

and another old one from Rockpalast, lots of guitar from 3:45 on:

and a more recent one:

BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2006, Richard Thompson got an award from …

(picture courtesy Bryan Ledgard)

Guitars, Mark Knopfler gear, Misc

Dream Guitar album on Strat-talk.com – real or fake?

Today I surfed into the Strat-Talk.com forum where I found a photo album with 12 famous dream guitars. Among these were some Strats and Teles of David Gilmour, George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, and three guitars of Mark Knopfler (the red Schecter Strat and Tele, and the red Fender), all in the same high resolution.

The question: Are these real or are they fakes? You can use the comment function to express your opinion.

Guitar in general, Misc

How to avoid RSI for guitar players – part 2

In the first article on this subject I explained what RSI is and where it results from. This second article should focus on what you can do to overcome it in case you already have problems.

Since I am not a medical doctor and do neither work in this field, I might not be competent to write about such a complex thing. For this reason everything I recommend must be “on your own risk”. Besides, everyone is different, so what worked for me might not be the right thing for you. Nevertheless, some years ago I had myself some problems with RSI, but I found help and some good ideas about it. Consequently I got rid of it rather quickly.

So, what exactly happened? At that time I was working self-employed and spent all my work time at the computer: typing and mouse clicking all day long. And after work I played guitar, which of course put more stress upon my arm muscles. One day I got a sharp pain in my right forearm, even when doing simple things like mouse-clicking, not to mention picking a guitar string. I thought it was better to stop with it for that day, but it was not better the next, and neither the day after. When I finally went to a doctor, it had become even worse, a constant pain in my arm.

What did the doctor say? He said it came from working too much, I should make a break for some time, and he prescribed some pills to reduce the pain and the inflammation, but these had a lot of unwanted side effects, which was why I was reluctant to take them (besides I never ever take pills). Not working meant no money by the way, and stopping guitar playing was a nightmare anyway, and for how long? A horror scenario.

I consulted  a second doctor, and he did and said completely different things than the first (!?). He said a tendon on the upper side of my arm was inflamed and even bounces with a little click when doing certain movements. Hmm, didn’t I tell him that I have pain mainly on the inner side of my forearam, and not on the upper side? Do they never listen? He gave me some injections – at least with a homeopathic medicament. And he prescribed some massages. He emphasized that I had to go to a particular masseur who would be the best for some reason.
I couldn’t get an appointment there before a couple of days later, so I had the next appointment at that doctor’s (for some more of these injections) before I had a chance to get the massages. I remember that the first thing the doctor asked was if I had already been to the masseur and what was his opinion about my pain – which sounded like a rather strange question to me because HE was the doctor, and a masseur, well, just massages, I thought.

The reason for pain – contracted muscles

The next day I had my first appointment for the massages. The masseur said he first had to examine my arm, and he also asked what *exactly* lead to the problems (something the doctors did not want to know). After this examination he told me that I had overused my flexor muscles, while my extension muscles were too weak. For this reason the balance between flexion and extension was disturbed, as a result my flexor muscles remained in a slightly contracted or even cramped state. The contracted muscles in the forearm lead to more tension on the tendons, which means more friction at the joints, and this is the reason for the inflammation. The pain in your wrist is a direct result of a problem somewhere else, it is simply that the tendons and joints are the weakest link in the chain and thus more susceptible for pain and inflammation.

He ‘showed’ me these contracted muscles – which means he pushed on them which resulted in a typical dull pain. This problem was not restricted to my aching forearm, there were contracted muscles also in my upper arm and at the base of the thumb in my palm (and basically all over my whole body as well, see below).

Flexor and extensor muscless are antagonist and must be both in a balanced state

This was at least some logical explanation (remember, the doctors did not explain anything at all). Within the next sessions he also pointed out to me that such a disbalance results to more disbalance, even at distant locations of the body: it changes the position of the shoulders, which again has an effect on the back and the neck, this again leads to a different body posture, which again means you are standing differently, and so on. See the body as a physical model of your skeleton, and your muscles as springs that are attached to the bones. As long all muscle tensions are balanced, everything is alright, but as soon as only one single muscle has an increased tension, all other muscles – or springs in this model – change their position a little bit to compensate the changed forces.

What to do against contracted muscles?

The remedy was easy: moving the arm. I simply had to move it as much as possible, in all directions, every muscle of the arm should be moving. By the way, this was the opposite of what the doctor ordered: he said I should rest my arm in a slope  – which I first did, but when this did not help and I felt I could’n stand it anymore, I ended this therapy. It gave me a bad feel and the pain got even worse.

The important thing about moving the arm is not to use any force, moving without the smallest hint of force. This is because the muscles are often even cramped, and it doesn’t make sense to pull on the cramped muscle, you rather had to let go instead of ‘doing’ something. It is similar to That Chi, the ancient Chinese art of moving (basically of fighting, but you are doing fighting movements in slow motion so to say). Here the key is also to reduce muscle tension (which enables you to move as fast as a lightning in a combat).

The second thing was stretching: with the help of some exercises the contracted muscles were carefully stretched, but again, it is important to release the muscle tension.

And thirdly, the antagonist muscles (those used for extension) had to be strengthened, again with some exercises.

In my case my arm was better very soon, and the pain never came back up to today – seven years later. I admit I did not really do much of the strengthening exercises, it was rather the idea of moving the arm without any force which loosened the cramps it seems.

I also got two Qigong balls – two iron balls of about 1.5″ diameter which you simply circulate around each other in your palm. This flow-like motion of all your finger joints made the hand muscles feel much smoother again – and they cost just a few dollars.

After this experience I was much more sensitized for such muscle contractions, and I suddenly managed to feel them at many places of my body. I did the same, moving these areas without any force. I even tried out That Chi and Qigong exercises, and they had a wonderful effect. Besides playing guitar, another hobby of mine is playing football (=soccer), and suddenly it happend that I could play like never before in my life. I was in a ‘total flow’, and also mentally never felt better.

I might cover some more details – like the stretching exercises – in a coming part of this article series.